Only the Good Die Young
by Perpetually amused
Summary: She was mysterious and beautiful, and he was all too willing to get away from the tedium. One-shot


"_I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints,_

_The sinners are much more fun"_

From where Edward was standing, he could see the girl float in, as if walking on a cloud. It seemed as if the whole room stopped to watch the newcomer, all just in awe. She didn't go to this school, of that Edward was certain. If she had… he would've noticed her, right? Yet no one questioned her presence. Her gauzy purple dress only added to the ethereal quality about her, and Edward wasn't quite sure where to look first.

The girl drifted past Mike and Tyler and Jacob, all the jocks, as they leered at her and made catcalls that seemed to so wrong. Instead she made her way towards where Edward was standing, staring at her in a daze. With a small smile on her raspberry lips, she extended her hand to Edward, peering up at him through her long eyelashes. Edward glances around, scarcely believing that she wanted him to dance. _Nobody wants to be seen dancing with the school nerd on Prom night_, he thought wryly. But the mystery beauty showed no signs of hesitation, so her put his hand in hers and then went onto the dance floor. Glancing over at Jacob's table, he saw them all staring at him with their jaws hanging open and he snickered.

While Edward didn't know how to be popular or dress fashionably or even, well… _talk_ to girls, one thing he did know how to do was dance. And that night, Edward danced his heart out with the girl, both of them twirling around as if they were dancing on stars. The smelly gym and his shallow classmates faded, and all that was left was the girl, the music, and the rhythm of their feet in time with his breathing and the beating of his heart. When the girl spun in, her skirt whipping around in a wild fashion, she locked her hands around Edward's neck, stood up on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear, "Wanna get out of here?" Her voice was low and musical, lilting and even exotic in a way. Edward's voice failed him and he just nodded.

Instead of walking towards the door to outside, as Edward expected, the girl walked to the opposite side of the gym and pushed open the double doors that would lead further into the school. Edward frowned but didn't argue; worried that if he resisted this beautiful creature would disappear forever. So her trailed behind her in the hallways. She clearly knew her way around the school. But how?

Without hesitation she went through a door marked "staff only." Edward stopped dead. The entirety of his high school career he hadn't broken any rules, he had stayed in nights, reading instead of studying, He was a model student and had never so much as loitered in front of the "no loitering sign." Perhaps to some going through that door would require no thought about it, but Edward wasn't like that.

He had two choices, he could call the girl, whatever her name was, and he could go back to the chaperoned prom, with safe and manufactured "fun", or he could follow her into the unknown behind that door. Yet, despite his mind panicking a bit, his feet were already moving towards the door. As he passed through it, Edward swore he could've felt a tingle run through his body.

He went up a flight of stairs that were behind the door and once he did, he couldn't help but catch his breath. He was standing on the roof of Forks high; a roof that, until then, hadn't even known existed. The girl was silhouetted against the night sky and as Edward approached her, she turned to look over her shoulder. He could see that she was cold, with her thin dress and off the shoulder sleeves… but she didn't seem to mind. She sat down on the edge of the roof, feet dangling over it, and patted the spot next to her. Edward plopped himself down and then got a dizzying wave of vertigo as his feet hung in midair. He gulped and resolved to not look down again.

"It's beautiful isn't it? The girl asked, and Edward almost jumped at the change from the silence. He looked at her in confusion and she motioned to the night sky. The stars were huge and bright and Edward felt as if he could almost reach out and touch them. But their beauty was a cold and unforgiving one and suddenly he felt very small.

"On a night like this there's nothing to stop you from just drifting off into the sky, nothing to keep you tethered here." His voice surprised him, for he hadn't planned on speaking, it had just slipped out. But the girl didn't seem surprised. She just nodded as if what he'd said was the most astute thing she'd ever heard.

"Who said I don't want to drift into space?" The moonlight washed over her, throwing into contrast her warm chocolate eyes, which currently looked like they were miles away. "Wouldn't that mean freedom?" Edward considered this.

"If freedom means being totally alone then, yes, that would be freedom. But, as much as I want to get out of this town, I'd rather be here than completely isolated." Edward found himself realizing the truth of the words as he was saying them. He was miserable in highs school. But even then, he had people who loved him, his family, his best friend Jasper… and he wouldn't give them up even if that meant no more teasing and bullying.

The girl put her cold hand over Edward's larger one. He shivered at the electricity that that seemed to send through him. She turned so that she was facing him and he could see a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. "Well then I guess I'll just have to settle for floating into happiness." She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. The feel of it made Edward feel more alive than he ever had and he deepened it, slipping his fingers into her hair.

When they broke apart the girl was definitely smiling, and so was Edward for that matter. He had a huge goofy grin on his face and just kept feeling the ghost of her lips against his. The girl seemed to decide something and stood up abruptly. "I have something to show you." She pulled her dress over her head and Edward stared in shock. But =, evidently, that wasn't what she wanted to show because she immediately walked to the middle of the roof, where there was some sort of storage shed. Edward wasn't sure if he should follow her or not but she came back soon enough, pulling on jeans and a t-shirt. She then tossed similar clothes at him and asked him to change into them. She turned around to give him some privacy and Edward paused, confused. But his dress suit really was starting to feel uncomfortable so he took it off and put on the shirt and jeans she had given him. The jeans were two sizes too big and the t-shirt was a bit smaller than he normally wore, but everything seemed to fit more or less.

The girl led the way to the fire escape and climbed down it. Edward eyed it warily, not sure if it was sturdy, it looked pretty rusty. But he wasn't going to let a fire escape ruin the night, so he tucked his discarded dress clothes under him arm and started down it. The girl silently help up a backpack from him to put his clothes in once he reached the bottom. Then they walked… to a motorcycle? Edward wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but that definitely wasn't it. The girl swung herself onto it and pulled a helmet onto her head, then offered Edward one.

Edward's hands were shaking when he accepted the helmet, but still he clambered on behind the girl. He wasn't quite sure why. It would be reasonable to draw the line here, motorcycles were dangerous. But for some reason, he didn't. However when the motorcycle started up, he closed his eyes as tight as he could and didn't open them for the whole trip. All he felt was the cool night air blowing against him, and the girl's hair occasionally whipping at him.

He recognized the place where they were as the beach right by his house. They were on top of a cliff looking over the water. His confusion grew when the girl once again started stripping off her clothes and motioned for him to do the same. This time she didn't immediately start walking away after changing so Edward couldn't help but admire her beautiful body by the glow of the moonlight. Strangely he didn't feel self-conscious, though he was usually so shy about his body that he would wear a shirt when he went swimming.

The girl put her hand in his and pulled him to the edge of the cliff. He expected that they were just going to sit down or something. The girl looked at him, excitement flashing in her eyes. "You ready?" Edward felt apprehensive at her words, then realized what she was planning on doing.

"Wait… what?"

"One… Two… Three!" The girl jumped over the edge and pulled Edward with her, still connected at the hands. Edward screamed while the girl at his side whooped. In now time at all, he hit the water with a splash. It was cold, to say the least. Within seconds Edward felt chilled to the bone and barely noticed the girl letting go of his hand. He propelled himself upward and spluttered once he reached the surface. Blinking the water out of his eyes, he saw the back of the head of the girl as she swam confidently towards the shore. He took off after her, unwillingly to spend any second longer then necessary in the water. Already he couldn't feel his toes.

When he flopped onto the beach, the girl was wringing her hair out. "Are… you…. Crazy?" He panted; the cold water had left him strangely breathless. She looked up with wide, innocent eyes.

"C'mon, are you saying that wasn't the least bit fun?" Edward was about to answer no, but the words didn't quite make it out of his mouth. The girl smirked at his hesitation, "I thought so. "He stuck his tongue out immaturely. Then he saw her shiver and became very aware just how cold he was.

"Shit it's cold! Let's go to my house, it' about two minutes away from here." This time he was the one leading her, as they ran through the forest that edged the beach in their underwear. Edward prayed that his parents weren't home, and was very glad to see that all the windows in the house were dark.

Once inside, he could feel his limbs slowly starting to thaw. He gave one of his bigger t-shirts to the girl and directed her the bathroom to take a shower. Edward just flopped onto his bed, not even bothering to dry off. His heart was still pounding in his chest and he could scarcely believe the events of the night. He had went from being at prom stag to jumping off a cliff with a beautiful girl in his underwear. He recalled a quote from a movie that seemed to fit perfectly. "All my memories of high school are from this night.'' Or something like that.

Soon he was aware that the shower had turned off and the girl was standing just outside my room, looking hesitant, wearing only his shirt. He tried not to notice how good she looked in it; he didn't want to scare the girl by attacking her with my lips. He motioned for her to come in and stood up to take my shower. Right before Edward walked out of his room he turned.

"Thank you for an incredible Prom night." A blush crept over her skin and she smiled shyly.

"No, thank you, this was the best night of high school. Forks High can get a little dull." He was surprised when she said that she went to Forks High. How had he never noticed her?

"What's your name?" She shook her head in response to my answer, a smile playing at her lips. "Well… will I ever see you again?" He found himself wishing desperately that the answer would be yes.

"Only fate knows the answer to that now." Edward pursed my lips at her cryptic answer, not completely satisfied, but not willing to ruin the perfect night with insisting, if a night was really all he had.

When he came back from my shower the girl was curled up under the blankets, peacefully sleeping. He carefully climbed in to bed, not wanting to disturb her. Wrapping his arms around her, Edward closed his eyes and the aroma of oranges and cinnamon that emanated from her tickled his nose. Within moments he was asleep.

Light filtered in through Edward's windows and he groaned and rolled over, wanting to get back to sleep. It soon became clear that that wasn't happening anytime soon and he sleepily sat up. The events of the night before trickled into his memory and his eyes snapped open. The girl was gone, but lying on his pillow where she had slept was a slip of paper. Curiously he picked it up. Written in elegant handwriting was one word. "Bella."

The name brought back a vague recollection of a girl who sat at the back of his history class. She was always hiding her face in her hair so he had never really gotten a good look at her face, nobody had. HE chuckled, who would've known that she would turn out to be stunning?

More importantly, Edward remembered when we were talking about colleges in history; someone had asked her where she was going. She quietly said that she was going to Stanford, the same place he was going. A huge smile split his face and he felt kind of giddy. Perhaps fate wasn't the only one with the answers,


End file.
